Making the Summer Count!

To me this is the official first day of summer.

I know many of you in the U.S. have had kids out for summer vacation for over a month now, but here in Canada school often doesn’t end until the last week in June. And even though I’ve never had kids in public school (we homeschooled), I still think of summer as being July and August.

And so I woke up today, stretched, and sighed. In a lovely way. Because it’s time to relax!

I know I often do Reader Questions on Monday and Top 10 Tuesdays, etc., but I hope you’ll forgive me if, over the next eight weeks, I’m a little more flexible. I’m on summer time!

So let me share a few summer things with you that I’m excited about!

Nine Thoughts That Will Change Your Marriage is Almost Here!

So my new book, 9 Thoughts That Can Change Your Marriage, will be released on August 18. If you’re tired of hearing “pat” Christian answers for marriage problems, you’ll really like this book! I look at how a lot of the pat answers we hear aren’t really biblical–or at least they don’t tell the whole story. And believing them can actually undermine our marriage!

Here are just a few:

If your marriage is in trouble, “just do it!” (have sex a lot)
Wives who consistently submit to what their husbands want and let him lead will find their marriages blessed.
God is close to the brokenhearted, so if you’re sad in your marriage, God understands and is close to you, fighting for you.
We’re to live at peace with one another, so avoid conflict! Conflict is a sign of a bad marriage

If you’re wondering what’s wrong with those, then you need the book!

I’m really happy with the way it turned out, and I would be so grateful if you all ordered it, too. And just a heads up–if you want to do me a favour, it helps so much if you pre-order it. You won’t be charged until August 18, and your book will ship on that date (or the Kindle version will download then!) But if you order it now, then when it does release, it will go to the top of the Amazon bestsellers. And Christian retailers often decide what books to stock based on Amazon ranking.

So the more books sell on that one day, the higher my ranking will be for a while. That’s just the way it works. But I know you’ll like the book, too! So much of this blog went into it (and a lot of comments from the blog made it into the book), so you’ll likely recognize some of the discussions.

So how am I making the summer count with this book?

Well, I’m emptying my older daughter’s room completely out (she’s getting married July 18 and hasn’t lived at home for two years) and I’m setting it up as a YouTube studio! And I’m going to film 9 videos to release, one day at a time, before August 18 looking at the different pat answers. And then I’ll have the studio all set to go so that I can start doing more videos in the upcoming year. I’m jealous of my younger daughter being better at YouTube than I am. (Have you seen Katie’s videos?)

The Ultimate Digital Photography Bundle is Gone Tonight at Midnight

I shared last week about the Ultimate Digital Photography Bundle–an amazing bundle of ebooks, ecourses, and bonuses that can help you hone your photography skills, whether with an iPhone or a DSLR.

That bundle is up tonight at midnight EST, and if you haven’t gotten it yet, I don’t want you to miss out and be disappointed. So I want to share two quick resources with you today–one from the Beginner version and one from the Intermediate version.

First, if you’ve wanted to capture better pictures of your kids, but you’ve never known how, The Unexpected Everyday is an awesome book!

It tells you about composition–what should go into a photo and where you should place the focal point. It tells you about perspective and angle–like how a picture will look different if you take it from the floor or above your subject. It tells you about speed and light, so that you can get that “blurry” effect and form a neat focal point just by what’s in focus, like these two:

And it shows you how to catch cool outdoor elements by placing the focal point in the right point of the picture:

This is the level I’m at, and it’s so much fun to work through the book! I treat each part as a tutorial, where I have to go and recreate the picture. And I’m actually learning a lot (I knew about the “rule of threes” when it came to writing; I didn’t know about the “rule of thirds” with pictures).

This book alone is normally $19, but the ENTIRE beginner Photographer’s Bundle is only $37–and you get dozens more resources, including ecourses on how to use your particular camera, a 12 part basic photography ecourse worth $197, a free photographer’s course on Craftsy worth $70, and more!

Find out more about the Beginner Bundle, or

Now here’s something from the Intermediate edition that has me drooling. When you buy one of the bigger bundles (intermediate, professional), you get ALL the books from the smaller bundles plus your own. The intermediate edition focuses heavily on learning how to use Lightroom to edit your photos and how to take more “artsy” photos, like the Black and White Photography Ecourse.

But one book I just love is called Golden Hours, on how to take amazing photos at sunrise or sunset.

It doesn’t just talk about how to use light well; it also talks about an internet app you can get that looks at the topography of your region, and then shows you exactly where to go to capture the best sunrise or sunset pictures. That’s amazing!

Then he talks about the nitty gritty of how to capture the light in the sky and the “mood” of a photo, so you can get pictures like this:

This book is normally $19, but for $67 you get the entire intermediate bundle PLUS the entire Beginner bundle–almost $1200 in phogotography training.

Find out more about the intermediate bundle, or

Remember, as of Midnight tonight this bundle is GONE–so if you’re interested, take a look now. Learning photography is such a great summer project, and one I’m hoping to get better at!

I Need to Know–What Did You Love BEST About Your Wedding?

So we’re in the final stretch of wedding preparations! We’ve got almost everything figured out. I’m just working on the minute-by-minute schedule of the day for everyone (we have to figure out who is getting where and in what car, since most people won’t have vehicles), and I need to print out the bulletins. My husband is working on a slide show, and Katie is working on her MC speech.

But I want to make sure we don’t miss something really FUN that we could do. So I want to know: was there a particular part of your wedding day that worked really well? A particular photo you took? Some special element of the ceremony? Something about the dance? The way the guests got you to kiss? If there was something special you did, can you leave it in the comments? I would so appreciate it!

I’m Knitting!

Finally, my big summer project is to finish a summer bedspread for our bed made out of scraps of sock weight  yarn. I’ve collected so much over the last 15 years, and I’m putting it all together into a blanket. I’ve been working on it like crazy for the last few weeks (I started it about 4 years ago ), but I think I may just finish it!

What do you think?

Have a relaxing summer, everyone! I’ll still be around and I have a month of posts ready to go–but I may not be as active in the comments as I travel and get ready for the wedding. Isn’t summer grand?

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